At my rank, it's mostly Rogues, though also lots of Druids, mid-range Warlocks, annoying Mages, the occasional Warrior OTK or Hunter Eaglehorn/Secrets deck. Not a lot of giants except in those Warriors and some Warlocks, really.

Just been watching a stream from someone at Legendary and he was very suprised when he came up against the secrets Hunter and a Rogue playing Assassinate, so I think there's actually some big differences in meta within just a few ranks up or down (those players were matching him from rank 4).

I think I finally worked out how to approach the current meta. A couple of weeks ago when I first switched to Druid it was enough to play control and just throw blocks in the way of the faster decks, but since christmas I've been winning less and the last few days were hell.

It's because the Warlocks got slower, and both they and the Warriors started running Molten Giants (they've gotten pretty common since I said I wasn't seeing many). I probably should have figured it out sooner, but after a few Shaman losses today I finally got it. Shaman works pretty well. I have to keep my opponent at about 20 health, draw out the fight, use taunts to protect myself, and wait for the opportunity to bloodlust and kill within two turns (one for Warrior).

I'd already figured out that aggressive play was working better, and added Lava Bursts to my deck. I just hadn't gotten the smart play down yet. I may need more removal because of the Giants-plus-taunt move.

(To do in future: Molten Giants Shaman deck, with weapons to lower health and Windfuries. I still don't have any Giants.)

Yeah, but if you're preparing to burst them down from ~20 health, they can't really get themselves low enough for the full combo.

Anyway, my Shaman deck started losing badly again, and now I've switched to Mage. I'm using Savjz's deck (but with Counterspell instead of Ice Block, unfortunately), which is sometimes hit-or-miss - it has no AoE, and sometimes I seem to draw nothing but high value cards in the early game. But, it wins games.

Had a good run of arenas yesterday (Priest 5, Shaman 7, Druid 5, and yes, those crappy numbers are good for me), but it's about to come crashing down because I decided to try running Warlock. I knew it was a bad decision, I never do well on Warlock in arena. So far I'm at 0/2.

If my experience is still valid, the most critical difference between formats is the draft.

a) Don't expect rush decks - those require a very specific deck structure to be viable. You'll likely meet one at most on an average run, and even then it won't be very aggressive.b) Unless you've got a badass Hero Power, GET A TON OF 2-DROPS!! It's much more difficult to win back the board, as you're completely at the whim of your draft for sweepers. The advantage of early board control is much greater than in normal play.c) Don't try to build clever combos. For example, Weapon-manipulating Pirates are only going to work if you drafted at least three separate weapon creators, or if you're playing Rogue. The follow-up being...d) Blank minions, specifically the Yeti and the Ogre are surprisingly good, because they just smash stuff no matter what's on the table. As an aside, the Venture Co guy is deadly in Arena, as you opponent isn't likely to have a lot of tools to keep him out of the fight.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

I was incredibly embarrassed yesterday when I lost an Arena match to a Warlock who'd drafted Murlocs. Drafting Murlocs in arena is an very stupid thing to try to do, and yet I still managed to lose to him.

Main points: The draft is all about picking the best cards from each set, and secondarily trying to draft into a good curve. A card that's good in constructed is not always good in arena, and vice versa. For example, as Sagara said, the Venture Co. Mercenary. It is huge board presence on turn 5, difficult to deal with.

You don't want to draft cards that rely on other cards for their value. You wouldn't, for example, draft an Ethereal Arcanist if you can't rely on drafting Secrets. On the other hand, a Kirin Tor Mage is a 4/3 for 3 regardless of whether you can use her effect. (Injured Blademaster is also a very nice 4/3 for 3, which gets better if you can heal him - he's also immune to Backstab.)

Also helps to know what cards are generally bad and should pretty much never be taken, eg. Shieldbearer.

The other side is actually playing the matches. Your play is more significant than your deck, really, in the arena format. Learning the best value moves each turn takes a lot of practice and watching other players. I'm sure I'm still not good at it, as evidenced by my complete inability to get above 7 wins.

I've been watching more players on twitch lately (ihearthu.com has a thing now which lists a bunch of streams and tells you which are currently live).

Don't just watch the best players! Watching average or bad players lets you see where they're making mistakes, and how you migvht have done differently. (Kungen, for example, is not a bad player, but he makes a lot of mistakes. More than, say, Savjz, who's one of the top players in the world.)

main thing that makes arena boring for me is that you are playing too many games with every deck. would much rather have the wins capped at 7 or something. gets boring very fast to play with the same 30 cards.

Well, Priest ain't the easiest to arena with. It's pretty good at stalling, but it's always hard to have both card advantage and a way to kill the other guy, unless you get a Shadowform, so don't be too surprised.

One thing you could try is note down every choice you did in a draft (with the alternatives) and we could all discuss it for possible pointers.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

Or for jsut drafting, there's always the Hearthhead practice drafts. I just did a Priest one. IMO my most dubious picks there were Mindgames, and choosing Thoughtsteal over a minion early on.

Honestly, though, I think almsot any arena deck is capable of 3 wins. Watch how other players play, and think about what you would have done in the situation, is my advice. Applejacked is a great streamer to watch for that. He plays constructed, and he talks through every single turn, what his options are and why he's going to do whichever one he does.

faerie dragon for me. 2 drops are super important, especially as warrior has no 'active' hero power. inventor also better then stormwind knight.

emperor cobra/knife juggler/defender of argus

defender of argus. not even in the same league. in constrcuted you can play a juggler with some 1 drops or defend it. that's not how it works in arena. also people play a lot less toughness 1 stuff. it's usually not much better then a generic 3/2. and defender is insane. I'd also pick cobra over juggler.on top of that with all the weapon dmg you take, you are really in need of taunt as a warrior.

voodoo doctor/river crocolisk/dread corsair

already got 2 weapons. the tempo gain from playing corsair for 0-1 mana is just insane. makes more then up for it being average in other spots.

blood knight/gorehowl/big game hunter

gorehowl. card is very, very good. big game hunter doesn't have target too often. he's awesome if it hits, but gorehowl is imo much better.

wild pyromancer/Alarm-o-bot/Pint-sized summoner

pyromancer. i like summoner but you just get destroyed too often by 2/3s and 3/3s. much better for mages/rogues where you at least can finish off the toughness 3 guy with your hero power. still, pyromancer is better and you already got a couple of spells with cleave, upgrade and shield block.

frostwolf grunt/booty bay bodyguard/argent squire

I agree with the bodyguard here. squire is a good cons card as you play it with dark iron dwarfs and defender of argus. so far there's hardly any buffing in sight which makes him bad.

execute/silver hand knight/loot hoarder

it's nice to actually have real removal, but silver hand knight is so much better then execute that I don't see it being justified. at this point you have an arcanite reaper, 1-2 spellbreakers and should have a gorehowl, that's good enough to take the better card here.